Meter



March 31, 1925.

M. QSMITVHEY METER Original Filed Dec. 1916 4, Sheets-Sheet 2 im/ MM 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 M. SMITHEY METER Original Filed Dec. 1916 y r 0 0 a 0 4.

March 31. 1925.

WITNESSES March 31. 1925.

M. SMITHEY 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 ATTORNEYS Meters,

Patented Mar. 31, 1925. v

UNITED STATES 1,531,353 PATENT OFFICE.

MARVIN SMITHE'Y, or LAwnnncEvILLE, VIRGINIA.

' METER.

Originalappllcatiomi filed .December '26, 1916, Serial No. 138,837. Renewed April 1, 1922. Serial e No. 548.793.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARVIN SYMITHEY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Lawrenceville, in the county of Bruns wick and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in of whiclrthefillowing is a specification. I My invention relates to improvements in meters of the type inwhich a plurality of odometers is mounted in a casing, means being provided to drive the odometers simultaneously, certain of the odometers' being .movable into reading position, and other of the odometers being fixed in position, and it consists in the combinations, constructions and arrangements herein described and claimed.

Anobject of myinvention is to provide a meter of the type described, in which the odometers are mounted so as to move in a plane about a central axis. -,wA further object of my invention 1s to.

provide means for disconnecting the driving means from 'thecommon odometer drive andfor subsequently disconnecting any one of the odometers, and for resetting it at will.

Other objects and advantages willappear, in'the followingspecificatiomand the novel features of l the invention will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

y invention-is illustrated in'theaccompanying drawing forming a part ofthis ap- I plication, in which:

' certain parts thesake of iclearness.

Figure 7 is a'section'alongthe line'7- -7' Figure-1 is a plan view ofIthe device.

Figure 2 is a section on the-line 22,of

1 3. Figure 3 is a sectional view along theline 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Figure 4 is a section along the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

Figure 5.is a section along the line 5 -5 of Fig. 2. I

Figure .6 is an enlarged, detail section substantially alongthe line 6.-6 of Fig. 3

I Figure 8 is "alsection' through 'a portion theresetting mechanism for the stationary odometers. J r I Figure 9 is afsection along the line 9'9 ofF1g.4."'

Figure 10 is a perspective view of a portion of the driving mechanism, and

provided with an enlarged As will be seen from Fig 5,, the

' which a needle or indicatingmiles pr hour, The

the moving beng shown in elevationfor,

, In carrying out my invention I provide a casing 1, (see Fig. 2) which is of cylin drical shape, closed at its bottom, and being portion 1", which eaves a shoulder 2. Carried by the shouler is a washer 3 which supports a ring 4. The latter is connected by means of upwardly extending plates 5 (see Fig. 3) with a movable rim 6- in the shape of a ring. This rim is slotted to receive the upper end of the portion 1 so as to rotate thereon. The-rim 6 is providedrwith an overlapping portion having screws 7 bearing rollers 8, arrangedto engage und'erneatha flange portion at the top of the casingsection 1*, so as to hold the rim 6 in place. The rim 6 has secured to it on the under side, a ring 9, this ring'supporting in turn a glass plate 10.

On the interior of the (basin having a baseportion 11 ant? uprights 12.

are extended as shown at 12 to support .a dial plate 13 which is stationary, and over H arm 14 is arranged to swing The dial is provided with a scale late 13 is provided'with openings 16 throng which the numbers ofcertain of thefodo'meters may be viewed, as will be explained later.

- J ournaled in the casing lie 9. drive shaft 17 which is arranged 'to be connected with parts of a vehicle, not shown. This drive-s aft is provided with a worm 18 arranged to engage a gear-19 on a shaft 20, (see Figs. 2- and 10). The shaft 20 bears a worm 21 arranged to engage a gear 22 on a shaft 23 hearing a worm 24, the latter engaging the gear 25 on a shaft 26. It will be noted from Fig. '10 that the shaft 26 is supported in a bearing 27 which is pivotally mounted at 28 on the shaft 23, .so that" the shaft 26 may be moved around the axis of the shaft 23- as apivot, while the gears 24 wheel 30 formed at one edge of a rin 31. This ring consists of two sections whic are secured together by means of'screws 32 (see Fig. 5), seas to embrace a portion of the r ng 4, the ring 31 being rotatable upon the rm ies a hearing. The ring-31 is provided wit an external, gear 33, and has an ex 1 is a frame I engagethe star wheel 39 on-the sha The odometer a plate 35, and that between the plate 35 and the dial plate 13 is mounted a series of shafts bearing disks. Thus in Fig. 6, the shafts 36", 36", 36 and 36 .bear the corresponding disks 37, 37", 37 and 37. The shafts are mounted for revolution about their axes, the disks being numbered shown in Fig. 3, and the revolution of the disks causing the numbers to appear before the reading opening 16 see Fig. 1). It w1ll be observed that the shaft 36 has a single tooth 38 which is arranged to engage a star wheel or a gear 39 on the shaft 36*. The latter has a slngle tooth 38 arran ed (to 3 Similarly. this shaft 36 has a tooth 38 arranged to engage'a star wheel 39 on the shaft 36.

The disk 37 is a units disk, or the disk of the lowest denominationi It will be ob served that its shaft 36? extends through the plate'35and is provided with a gear 40 arranged to meshwith an idler4l, which turn isin mesh'witha gear 42, (see Figs.

6 and 7) carried by the'fplate 35, the latter being in engagement with the internal gear 34 carried on the ring'31. From the construction'described above it-is evident that when. the ring 31 is revolved b means of the mechanism heretofore descri ed, motion is transmitted to the-stationary odometer by means of the gears 34, '42, 41 and 40.

'ust described is a trip odometer, the total mileage odometer bein similar in construction except that instea of having anidler such as that shown at 41 betweenthe gears 42 and 40, its gear 40 which corresponds to the gear 40 of the trip odometer, is directly in mesh with the internal gear 34 (see Fig.3). The purpose of the idler 41 is to provide (a means for disconnecting andresetting the trip odometer.- To. thisend the gear 41 is mounted ona shaft 43 which is mounted so as to rotate about its axis," and also to slide longitudinally' with respect to-its axis in the plate 355% one'end, and in a 'de plate 44 at the other. The shaft 43 1s provided with a cone 45 which'is arranged to be engaged by the cam portion 46 at the center of a bevel gear 47 which" is mounted on a shaft 48 supported in a bearing 49 and being normally. acted on by a spring 50. The shaft 48 passes through the casing wall 1 and is provided with a thumb wheel 51 by means of which the shaft. may be rotated and also moved toward and away fromthe shaft 43. The latter bears a bevel gear 52 arranged to engage the bevel gear 47, while a spring 53 is disposed between the gear 52 and the upper portion of the plate 44.

It will be noted that when the thumb wheel 51 is pushed inwardly, the cam portion 46 will engage the cone-45, pushing the shaft 43 upwardly and carrying the idler 41 clear of the gear 42, the idler still being in mesh with the gear 40. At the same time the gear 52 is brought into mesh with the gear 47 so. that on turning the wheel 51, the wheel 40 may be rotated, thereby resetting the odometer... On the release of the thumb wheel 51 the springs 50 and 53 will restore the apparatus to normal, thereby connecting the gears 40 and 42 through-the medium of the gear 41.

Referrin now particularly to Figs. 2, 3

and 6, it will be seen that theannular memher 4 bears a series of uprights 54 at the top of which is secured a ring 55. Between this rin and the member '4 is mounted a series 0 shafts, like that shown in dotted lines'at56-(see Fig. 9) each shaft bearing a disk 57 and a gear wheel 58. This gear wheel is arranged to slide. on the shaft 56 (see Fig. 11), the sleeve of the gear'bear: inga detent 59 arranged to enter notches 60 in the shaft. The lower end of the shaft 56 is provided with a gear 61. In the present instance, I have shown six sets of these shafts 56 having gears 58. The disks 57 on the shafts 56 are the unit disks of the series of odometers, as shown in Fig. 3. Each set of odometers carried by the ring 55 is driven through'the medium of a gear 58, certain of these gears being shown in dotted lines in Figs. 3 and 9, and in full .lines in Fig. 2.-

The gears 58 are in engagement with the external gear 33 of the ring 31 so that when p the ring 31' is rotated, the gears 58, and hence the odometers which are associated with the respective gears -58, will be driven simultaneously. The means by which the remaining disks of any odometer are driven,

is the same as that already set forth in con nection with the stationary odometers, in

Fig. 6, to wit, a mutilated gear and astar wheel, or gear arranged to be engaged by the multilated gear.

The means for permitting any of the odometers which are carried by the. ring 55. to be brought into reading position, is best set forth in Figs. 4 and 10. In these figures, it will be observed that the shaft 26 which bears the worm gear 29, may be swung about the shaft 28 as a pivot, thereby disengaging the worm 29 fromthe gear 30 which is carriedby the ring 31. The end of the shaft 26 projects through a slot '62 in the casing 1. held by the spring 64 against the shaft.

arm 63 is normally Thisarmis provided with a shoe 65 whieb :13)

exerts pressure on the shaft 26, but which permits the shaft to turn. A locking In 66 is secured to the arm 63 so that when the shaft 26 is moved in the direction shown by the arrow in Fig. 4,- the locking member 66 is'withdrawn from one of the sockets 67 which are carried by the ring or annular plate 4, there being one of these sockets for each of the movable odometers. Now, if the rim 6 is grasped and rotated, it will carry around with it the ring or annular plate 4,,the ring 55, and the movable odometers, so that any of these odometers corresponding to the legends on the rim may be moved into reading position. When the shaft 26 is released, the spring will take the worm wheel 29 back into engagement with the gear 30, while the locking lug 66 will enter one of these sockets 67, thereby locking the ring 4 in position, and hence preventing the rotation of the ring due to the driving of the odometers in the manner already'described.

The gears 61 are all arranged to engage a large gear 68 on the end of a shaft 69 which is provided vwith a head 70 which is milled so that it may be'easily turned. The engagement of the gears 61 by this gear 68 will occur when the odometer train thus engaged, is in position at the reading openings. In order to shiftthe shaft 56 I provide any suitable means, such as the forked lever 71. Mounted on the drive'shaft 17 is the centrifugal member 72 which is connected by a link 7 3 with a collar 73, the latter being acted upon by a spring 7 5. The collar bears an arm 76 which is slotted tov receive a pin 77 (see Fig. 4), on an arm 78 bearing a segmental gear 79 arranged to engage a gear 80 on the stem 81,, bearing a pointer 82 which is arranged to swing over the speedometer dial plate.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that any of the odometers in the outer ring may be brought at will into reading posltion, may be disconnected and held in disconnected position, and may be reset.

I claim:

1. In a meter comprising a plurality oi odometers actuated from a common source a rotatable support, a group of odometers arranged in a circular series on said support and shiftable by the rotation thereoi in succession to readingv position, and an odometer situated within such circular series and-lying in substantially the same plane as that of the series of odometers.

2. A meter comprising a rotatable support, a group of odometers arranged in a circular series on said support and shiftable by the rotation thereof in succession to reading position, and an odometer situated within such circular series and lying in substantially the same plane as that of the series of odometers, and a common driving means for all said odometers comprising a rotatable ring and gearing between the same and each odometer. I

3. In a meter for vehicles comprising a plurality of odometers actuated from acommon source a casing having a dial provided with a plurality of reading openings, a stationary odometer adapted to be read through certain of said openings, a support rotatable about said stationary odometer parallel to the face of the dial, and a plurality of sets of odometers carried by said rotatable support and adapted to be brought to a given position to be read through other openings.

4. In a meter comprising odometers actuated from a common source, a rotatable sup port, a group of odometers arranged in a circular series on said support, and shiftable by the rotation thereof to display position in succession, said odometers lying in substantially the same plane such plane being perpendicular to the axes of rotation of the support.

MARVIN SMITHEY. 

